In the present era of increasing demands for higher production efficiencies, increased speeds, containment and reduction of qualified labor costs, of which there is a diminishing supply, it is highly desirable to achieve increased production efficiencies through the utilization of novel and unobvious methods and processes. Such novel and unobvious methods and processes of safe high speed slicing/shaving of food products, as specifically disclosed, described and illustrated hereinafter, forms the subject matter of the present disclosure.
In today's economic environment of constantly increasing inflationary trends and escalating cost pressures, the food processing industry is continuously seeking sophisticated methods and processes which will increase the yield and thus the profit which is achieved from converting livestock, vegetable and like commodities into consumer goods, particularly such consumer goods as are designated for mass marketing in the sliced bulk wholesale field or the sliced and portion controlled retail field. These categories of products reflect a common denominator, namely, the requirement to "slice" the product from a "single mass" into a sliced or shaved portion of a controlled thickness and/or configuration. Whether sliced or shaved, such products can also be subsequently ground, minced, columnated, sectioned and/or formed into a desirable unit configuration compatible to unilateral practiced slicing methodology.
Irrespective of the specific product processing procedure or the eventual end product involved, in those cases in which the final product is an edible product, the "mouth feel" and "taste," i.e., organoleptic senses, are perhaps the most important attributes of the product. The consumer will make a subconscious assessment based upon his or her visual and aromatic experience of the product, but "mouth feel" through biting and chewing will to a large extent determine the end user's acceptance preference or rejection of the overall product. Accordingly, product quality assessment by the ultimate mass consumer is to a large extent influenced by the perception of the ultimate consumer and that perception to a great measure is influenced by the thickness of the sliced or shaved product. Extensive research conducted by the food processing industry has demonstrated that the thinner a product is sliced when used for consumer consumption, as in a sandwich, the more increased is the aromatic and/or organoleptic intensity achieved and experienced by the user. Thus, shaved and thinly sliced product effects optimum tenderness during biting and chewing and increases the perception intensity of product taste. Accordingly, the thinner a product is sliced or shaved, generally the more superior is its actual and perceived qualities.
The difficulty with a very thinly sliced/shaved product is the difficulty in maximizing slicing speed with commensurate sliced product yield while at the same time maintaining bacteriological product safety (absence of contamination) and minimizing accidental injury hazards (sliced fingers, etc.) when practicing conventional reciprocating slicing methods. A high speed practical but dangerous slicing method is unacceptable to the industrial, commercial and domestic product slicing and product retailing markets. Unavailable to the latter markets are, until the present invention, slicing/shaving methods which maximize slicing speed and sliced product yield while at the same time effecting bacteriological product safety and minimizing accidental injury.
Present industrial high speed slicing methods achieve slicing speeds of up to 800-900 slices per minute. These are practiced utilizing highly automated complex computer controlled high speed slicing machines which range in cost between $100,000 and $200,000 per machine. Such high speed slicing machines are exemplified by the flying-rotating half-moon knife, and various continuous band knives over which the product is reciprocated to achieve uniform slicing repetition. However, such high cost machines do not serve nor are they acceptable by the small retail commercial and domestic markets where the product is fed in a reciprocating motion perpendicularly toward a rotating slicing blade. These slicing machines might achieve a maximum of sixty strokes or thirty slices per minute if the operator's manual skills are high, but without automatic slicing machines of this type, fifty strokes or twenty-five slices per minute are more the norm. These conventional rotary slicing blade machines are utilized worldwide because of the low cost, but they are operationally dangerous, thus consequently causing thousands of personal injuries during daily operation, cleaning sanitation and maintenance procedures.